Morning journal and courier., 1887-01-07

can the growth Of this illiteracy. be checked9
Surely it cannot be done by course which
weakens and neglects the back districts. In
every center of population you may build
graded school, but this will throw its light
for only mile or two from the village
green, and then if you do nothing more
there is left beyond a wilderness of ignor-
ance denser and darker than it was before.
It can be done only by legislation which
cares for every child and which is enforced,
not only by local authorities, not by town
boards but by your own State board with
all the dignity and the power of the COM
monwea1th behind it.
In INV Judgment the number of days of
compulsory attendance should be increased
to one hundred and twenty. No expert
enced teacher believes that any ordinary
child can acquire reasonably good common
school education in less than one hundred
and twenty days of continuous schooling in
each year. The length of school required by
law should also be increased. 1t is now
fixed sc twenty -four weeks in the year and
many of the districts have no more. In all
cases it is resulting in lack of education, and
many parents are bitterly complaining that
the State provides-that is, virtually, per-
mits-only six months of schooling for their
children, while the children of their neigh
bors are enjoying ali the advantages that
forty weeks can give. To some of the weaker
districts the State might justly give addl-
tional aid. From some of the stronger ones
little might be taken away of that which is
granted now.
The question of education involves an obi
CATION between the State and the children and
the responsibility fer attending school should
be brought as closely to the children as pos
sible, that is, it. should be placed on the pa
rents themselves. Ii the parents are too
poor to send their children to school there
should be some sure and definite source of
relief. If they are too shiftless the penalty
should be SO sharp that single application
will rouse them to a sense of their duty. If
D. vertv and shiftlessness together form an
insuperable barrier between the home and
the school house, let the children be taken
away. This penalty might seem severe, but
its prompt application in single score of
cases would add ten per cent. to the average
school attendance of the year, would bring a
blessing to thousands of homes and the great
est blessing of all to the children thus taken
away.
But whatever may be the legislation, its
violation should be sought and the penalties
enforced directly by the State itself. Local
authorities would be well nigh worthless,
for, with some shining exceptions, they are
just as shiftless as the worst of the parents.
A few agents chosen for their special fitness,
working under the direction of some common
head and held responsible for the thorough
ness of their work could cover every district
in their investigations, and the total expense
would not exceed few thousand dollars a
year. In any event the benefit to the schools
and the children would be incomparably
greater than the cost. In the confidence that
your wisdom is equal to your responsibility
I commend the whole subject to your serious
consideration.